Pre-writing skills

I sat in a Grade 1 classroom where a young boy was painstakingly trying to copy what the teacher had written on the board. Seeing me watching him, the teacher came over and mentioned that he is not slow or academically weak, but that he takes so long to write and therefore often falls behind the rest of the class.

As I watched him, I noticed that he picked up his pencil after each little line he had drawn. He would then take time to move his hand in order to try and position it to draw the next small line that formed part of what he was trying to write. By the time he had done that he would need to look up again to see the next bit of detail on the board.

With the help of the teacher we were able to give him some tracing exercises to do on a smooth transparent wipe and write surface. The smooth surface with the whiteboard marker and the patterns he was tracing, helped to get his hand moving across the page without lifting. The teacher was almost in tears as she watched his writing speed improve almost immediately.

That is the moment I decided that pre-writing skills needed to be part of our Young Game Changers product offering. It is not necessary to start young three year old children writing formal letters or their names or number symbols. In fact I would strongly discourage that. Rather get them painting, cutting, pegging, playing with dough, colouring, sticking stickers and creating; all those fun things that are part of pre-writing skills.

What Are Pre-Writing Skills?

Pre-writing skills are a set of foundational abilities that children need to develop before they can begin to write. These skills include:

• Fine Motor Skills: The ability to use small muscles in the hands and fingers to hold and control a pencil or crayon.

• Hand-Eye Coordination: The ability to coordinate visual input with hand movements, essential for drawing shapes and letters.

• Spatial Awareness: Understanding the concept of space and how objects relate to one another, which is important for organizing letters and words on a page.

• Directionality: Knowing the direction in which to write, typically from left to right and top to bottom.

• Symbol Recognition: Recognizing shapes, letters, and numbers, which is crucial for reading and writing.

• Working memory: A working memory allows children to look at a word (for example) or number or symbol and then to write it without having to look back at each small detail in order to copy it.

Why Are Pre-Writing Skills Important?

Pre-writing skills are important because they form the basis of a child's ability to write effectively. Without these skills, children may struggle with writing tasks, leading to frustration and a lack of confidence. Here are some reasons why pre-writing skills are vital:

• Build Confidence: Mastering pre-writing skills helps children feel more confident in their writing abilities, encouraging them to take on more complex writing tasks.

• Good habits: Our pre-writing activities are specifically designed with a trajectory that teaches children to not lift their hands after each small movement but to move across the page fluently as they write. They are also created to help children develop the correct way to hold a pen or pencil right from the start. Starting directly with formal letters does not necessarily encourage this.

• Enhances Creativity: With strong pre-writing skills from our activities, children can better express their thoughts and ideas, fostering creativity and imagination.

• Improves Academic Performance: Writing is a key component of many academic subjects. Children with strong pre-writing skills are better prepared to succeed in school.

How Do Pre-Wri

ting Skills Help in Formal Writing?

Once children have developed pre-writing skills, they are better equipped to tackle formal writing tasks. Here's how these skills translate into writing success:

• Neat Penmanship: Fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination contribute to neat handwriting, making written work more legible.

• Speed: Children who have developed good habits and the necessary pre-writing skills will write at a good speed. Children who have not mastered these skills will often take much longer in class, once they start school, to complete their writing exercises.

• Organized Writing: Spatial awareness and directionality help children organize their thoughts and structure their writing logically.

• Effective Communication: Symbol recognition and creativity enable children to choose the right words and phrases to convey their ideas clearly.

Activities to Develop Pre-Writing Skills

Parents and teachers can support the development of pre-writing skills through a variety of activities:

• Painting before colouring: Holding a paint brush requires a hand-grip similar to holding a pen. To paint one cannot grip the brush with your whole hand. So encouraging children to paint before they start to colour is a good way to start with good habits on how to hold the writing implement. Our Pre-writing skills 1 set includes painting equipment.

• Wrist strengthening movements: Training the brain to easily move the wrist easily in all directions lays an excellent foundation for writing efficiently. Our Quanti-Fish rod activity (in Pre-writing skills 2 set) and magnet maze fun encourage this.

• Pegs and peg boards: Picking up and putting pegs on a peg-board or a line or paper mimics the finger position children need when writing. Often children want to push the index finger and thumb with the middle finger when writing or colouring. With pegs and peg boards they learn to only use the thumb and index finger as they pick up and place the pegs. Our Quanti-Line activity (in Pre-writing skills 2 set) fosters this while also strengthening their sense of number.

• Tracing patterns: The tracing patterns we have chosen encourage a fluid movement from left to right.

• Drawing and Coloring: Encourage children to draw and color to improve fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination.We also have a “Copy me” book that contains an assortment of patterns and drawing for children to copy.

• Tracing Shapes and Letters: Tracing shapes, letters, and numbers  help to enhance spatial awareness and symbol recognition.Our Pre-writing skills 2 set contains activities that support this.

• Playdough Play: Manipulating playdough strengthens hand muscles and enhances fine motor skills.

• Scissor Cutting: Cutting paper with scissors helps develop hand strength and hand-eye coordination. Our Pre-writing skills 2 set contains safe scissors.

• Hand punches: Using a hand punch also helps to develop hand strength and hand-eye coordination. Both our Pre-writing skills sets 1 and 2 include hand punches. The pre-writing skills 2 set also includes punching letters of the alphabet.

• Threading activities: These are shapes that have holes in and a lace. Children thread the lace through the holes. If you have ever watched a young child learning to tie their shoe laces, you will know that the coordination with this is often slow. These activities help develop this.

• Stickers: Learning to take the sticker off the paper and re-stick it is a fun activity all children love to do. Such activities develop creativity as well as hand-eye coordination and the fine motor skills needed for reading and writing.

• Developing working memory activities: Our Quanti-Cards and coding combos and sets are all designed to develop and improve working memory. Children with a weak working memory often have to look back and forth when copying in order to replicate each small detail. Our working memory activities help children develop a visual and audio memory of what they are seeing and hearing. They can then replicate what they saw or heard without the stimulus being present.

In conclusion, pre-writing skills are an essential part of a child's early development and play a significant role in their ability to succeed in formal writing. By nurturing these skills through our engaging Young Game Changer sets and activities, parents and educators can help children build a strong foundation for future academic success.